Jungle Book Chapter 1

....I have arrived beginning of August finally with more or less success as I got some food poisoning in Calgary the morning before my flight... Tell ya that was no fun flying high both on a plane and on all sorts of drugs... Then finally arrive and I found out that that my back pack decided to take separate tour somewhere around the Caribbean... Georgetown fall far from my expectations as a quaint nice quiet small town feel .. naaaa the chaotic 21st century raceing with 19 century vehicles people galloping on the side of the roads making it busy and crazy with noise and yelling honking cavalcade... minibuses that swallow people up in a hurry pretending to be minirocket reaching 130km/h and scraping the O2 barrier inches between cars and people sharing the same road with other cars trucks horse carriages , donkeys, and cows... Cows tend to get high on chewing sugar canes but sometimes they decide to bolt across the road and heeeee.... hang on in your packed capsule buses... oh and people catch a ride on anything... you see huge trucks carrying loose wood and people just barely hanging on over the top.... I was curious are they brave or just don't know any better that any major bump could spray the wood all over and its passengers. well the weather need no introduction as we scrape 1 degree above the equator so it's hot hot hot... and yes very humid... average is 34c during day and 29c at night... so nobody can guarantee cold beer over here... First nights are especially hard to sleep ...drenched in your own sweat, the fan buzzing a loud tune while fighting with my bulging mosquito net and yet this city is noisy.... When I say noisy some noise rather unique as I woke up tired a few times because noises from a playground like kids on rusty swings going back and fourth....... then next sudden awakening at 4 in the morning still going on, now I thought strange how kids enjoy this so much... Next morning I was reassured my accusations were unfounded as those are actually frogs that making that grinding noise.... weird... some strange birds add to the loud concert and not all sounding pleasant but ... I still find it interesting gets to you... - The sun comes up in a hurry and we find ourselves meeting the foreign minister and a rush press conference for TV and newspapers... We joked how already famous we are.. I still had no word from my adventurous backpack so I had only what I came in... Got some advancement to go out buy some necessities unfortunately most clothing’s are cheap looking but expensive import which are seem to have an obsession with brand names.... well fake of course as they appear on things that obviously not... Like I see a nice decent jungle hat but it has to have a Nike sewn over it... so price just went up .... so yea spent a lot on shorts and a sandal and daily needs .... I was considering maybe buying a motorbike but now reconsidering for a pedal one less likely to get it stolen and no real distances here... so as I beat the market path with a help of a friend the eager women trying to sell you anything began wow you .. - hey baby, sweet man look here.... which is normal here and not even considered harassing... one sexy mama flew out of a dense textile jungle of her clothing’s and unexpectedly grabbed my hand trying to drag me down to show her cheap sandals and enticing me with sensual words but after all the dust settle I politely squeezed out a simple no that’s not what I looked for the others bubbled out laughter to each other..... moving on to a cute little black boy who had nicer sandals and burst into laughter when I was taking my socks off ... now I wasn't sure he was saying he is taking his socks off....and that was hilarious or it was my glowing white feet..... on that note people here have absolutely no problem calling people names... sometimes rather mean as they describe everyone by odd traits when they call you.. This guy had a missing limb and the sellers were quick to get his attention yelling hey one legged maaan ..... or if you are tall they quickly make names like hey tower come down here.... they have no problem calling you white boy come here... or white meat for girls .... As I move on to different parts of the Starbroak Market music seems to compete at every corner SOKA music which they blast from bicycle ridden boxes kind of like ice-cream ones... but 2000 watt amplifiers .. sometimes they race who can out loud the other... fun fun deaf deaf.... but I have to say it is interesting to see all that.... Same day I got my own first mosquito net because we are living for the first 2 weeks in a old colonial guest house included maids... with full meal everyday... very nice... Everyday you find something new like the gecko in the toilette well not inside but on the wall.. which I guess is good it eats malaria mosquitoes too... Detailed description of next day was calling around if any word on where abouts of my adventurous backpack .... but no word on the runaway yet so I had to keep trying... the next day west Indies airway or air Canada was no help so I went to airport where whole bunch of runaway tired bags were in a line up waiting desperately for their masters... like 14 of them... finally I found one guy who willingly decided to help despite the apathy of the others and identified a suspect... through a computer in Trinidad... and told me my bad belongings on the way to Barbados.. then who knows where else before it catches a flight this way. Certainly I got kind of jealous as my bag hops the Caribbean islands without me .... but i was happy to hear it’s moving and well... The afternoon we were rounded up and arrived at the foreign ministry and next to our surprise the whole media was there to showcase us in the 6pm CNN or NCN news and newspaper the next day... It was exciting and funny as I shook hands with them, all of the sudden I felt maybe this is important what we do here... - As the sun lost some of it’s strength some of us explored the town and made it to this city park area where I saw my first beautiful Mermaid!.... well according to the legend the boat people mistook manatees for them which is a sea cow... That just tells glasses were not widespread those time as these animals were huge... It was neat to see how they live in the canals the hippos of Georgetown.. the city is full of ditches and canals as we walked we jumped across a few ditches as this town is under sea level. It has a sea wall for protection and it only has 6 hours a day to let the storm etc water out to ocean. So after jumping so many wide ditches our training just got to the point that in those canals and ditches lurking different types of anacondas and Caymans which are the south American crocodiles... wheeee no more fun jumping ...... no white meat bait. There actually was one day when one long snake tried to make it from one ditch to other side and got run over... not surprised as slow moving things get run over often nothing to slow people down as the handicap traffic lights stand mute and beaten guts hanging, none working... . so the anaconda just stretched across so I renamed it the Guyanese speed bump... I found out later this incident gets reported to the snake man who comes and collects these fine pan caked specimens. - The weekend we were rounded up for a VSO conference to a mini resort in the coastal jungle... we were all excited to leave the noisy city and finally see some of the jungle... it was only a second level tropical rainforest but still it was much taller than east coast Mexico... and it goes to all the way to 4 levels ... there was a creek with typical black water that is colored by the pigments from certain leaves vegetation in the forest so it's kind of like swimming in black tea or coke or when light hits it right… Banks Beer..... it's clean you can drink it .. but rather didn't try... Next best experience was the jungle sounds... variety of birds and reptiles give it a pulsing living blanket and monkeys come and go but rush hour is late night and early morning as it was only a crossing point for them during their daily commute to work shop or feeding spot.... Amazing as the darkness descended on us the moon shine like the silver coin laying enough light to see sparkling leaves... The wave of sounds intensifies in the surrounding forest so I laid down on creek shore and just immersed into the jungle concert... I always have great ideas so out of a joke I whistled one of my better jungle bird noise and a few seconds later from distance the whatever same animal answered back... we had such a good laugh about my mating call... some time later Eldorado rum kicked in as we all partied through the jungle night... then we faded give back the party scene to the bats and mosquitoes... The days were flying and we packed up again to stay with some local vso volunteers who took us around a bit more got us familiar with our new life... Well my roomy was more interested to show Brazilian women but that night was empty everywhere as a huge reggae concert was on ... Heavy schedule invited us to meet the British high commission as they are our primary savior if anyone needs it.. plus they are the ones updating the travel advisors and asked our input into it... nice building but the air-condition brought back some Calgary summer hmmmmmmmm ... Next day I decided to make it to the ocean shore to see where the breeze comes from and wow first time so beautiful then I directly look down from the wall and WOW again so much rotten garbage that gets washed on shore from the huge rivers.. the Demerara river is 7 kilometer wide and a floating bridge managed to tie east bank with west bank.. but the longest, widest is the mighty Essequibo river that is 34km wide at it's delta.. Which is still nothing comparing to the Amazon which is 74km. One quite Caribbean restaurant on the ocean shore where you can forget where you are for long moments ... Typical thatched roof with round build 2 story wood towers bridges connecting patio sections... I will post images soon when i can upload it from my laptop somehow... possibly i can burn it then from here at the vso office...but not yet.. well everyone write me what’s going on... with you.... i will try to update more often.... i have to go now but i hope it was a good update